Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have one final question. I went back and it seems very clear from the Policing Authority that the reliance on outside staff is a danger and a conflict for the governance issue. It needs to be dealt with. I welcome the clarity of what was said. Concern on the spend on ICT was referred to and that we thought some of it could have been done by skilled professionals hired directly by the Garda. It would probably have cost less money. That is the context. The bottom line is that private companies are in it for repeat business. That has been clearly stated by the Policing Authority, as well as the difficulties. We also see contracts running on without monitoring and without procurement. We can see where the difficulties arise in respect to trust in the system.